Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag will reportedly wait until the final day of the summer transfer window to sign Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona this summer, according to Steve Bates of The Mirror. United and Barcelona have closed an £72 million deal for the midfielder.
The Dutch manager has no intention on giving up on the 25-year-old midfielder according to the report. De Jong is involved in a stand-off with the Catalan club over £17 million in deferred wages because of the coronavirus pandemic. He seems to want what he is entitled to – his wages.
De Jong’s public stance seems to be that he has no intention of leaving Barcelona this summer and on Saturday he was part of the squad which flew to Florida ahead of the clubs pre-season tour. Although head coach Xavi was not part of the delegation because of trips to Iran.
Barcelona will open their pre-season campaign on Tuesday evening in Miami as they face David Beckham’s MLS franchise Inter Miami – which will be the early hours of Wednesday in Europe. It is suggested that De Jong is ‘in dialogue’ with United manager Ten Hag.
The 25-year-old Netherlands midfielder is said to want to move to United but he needs to push the Catalan club to get what he is owed, knowing that they need to offload him in order to register some new signings. The club announced a deal for Robert Lewandowski on Saturday.
If De Jong weakens his position by stating publicly that he wants to move to the Old Trafford club this summer, he would effectively be kissing goodbye to the £17 million that he is owed by Barcelona and that is not good business for the player – but business that Barcelona would love.
United supporters are frustrated about the saga which has been going on for two months now and seemed to be nearing the end after chief executive officer Richard Arnold and football director John Murtough were in Barcelona on Monday. But this is going to take time.
Discussions have been held regarding the deferred wages De Jong is owed with United possibly paying the wages and it being deducted from the transfer fee but a mixture of tax complications and FIFA and UEFA regulations remove that option from the table.
This shows just how badly ran Barcelona is in a financial aspect and instead of signing the likes of Raphinha from Leeds United for £55 million and Lewandowski from Bayern Munich for £42.5 million, you would have thought they would solves problems with owed wages first, obviously not.
Written by John Walker
